


I'm Just Going to the Store

by Mignon3tte



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, Multi, One Shot, Polyamory, humor I guess, our boys go shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 20:19:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mignon3tte/pseuds/Mignon3tte
Summary: Ash, Eiji, and Shorter go to the mall for a day of shopping.





	I'm Just Going to the Store

The minute they walked into the building, Eiji knew he had made a terrible mistake. The feeling washed over him at the same time the warm air did, but he ignored it. A nice day on a nice outing was just what they needed to get rid of their Friday boredom, right?

A day at the mall.

Eiji thought Ash asking to stop for a pretzel was absolutely harmless, so he thought nothing of it. As soon as his boyfriend had the cinnamon sugar treat in his hands, he was in a much better mood. He wasn’t hunched over with his hands in his pockets, for one thing; he wasn’t complaining about the crowds for another thing.

“Let’s stick together,” Ash said and Eiji, not fond of crowds himself, was happy to oblige.

There first stop was coming up. It was black with big screens on either side. Eiji read the sign.

“Hollister,” Eiji said.

“That’s right,” Shorter said, “the worst store ever!”

Eiji blanched. “Why?”

“You’ll see,” Ash said around his mouthful of pretzel.

Eiji found out why Hollister was the worst store ever very quickly. The store was terribly dark with little to no lighting. Eiji was tempted to turn on his phone’s flashlight just so he could get a good look at a t-shirt that caught his eye. The music playing in the store was a tad too loud as well. The thumping house music would be much more fitting in a nightclub than a clothing store. And the _smell_. Within 2 minutes of being in the store, Eiji developed a headache from the pungent smell of perfumes and colognes. He decided to call it quits when his eyes started to water.

His search for Shorter was made harder by the narrow walkways between the tables of clothing. Before he found his boyfriend, however, his phone vibrated. Ash, who had opted to sit in one of the plush chairs at the front of the store, had texted him.

**Ash: Hurry tf up**

Eiji frowned. It hadn’t been any more than 5 minutes since they went in. Surely Ash couldn’t already be sick of shopping.

**Eiji: Are you okay?**

**Ash: People keep trying to take pictures with me.**

Eiji found Shorter and dragged him out, ignoring the taller boy’s groans of protest.

“There you are,” Ash said, annoyance in his tone.

“What’s up?” Shorter asked.

“People keep trying to take pictures of me,” Ash said to him. Shorter was silent for a moment, and then burst into laughter.

“Oh man! They must think you’re one of those Hollister models,” he said. Ash turned away, pouting.

“Stop laughing, asshole,” he said. He folded his arms and Eiji gave a small giggle himself. He didn’t make a comment on how cute he thought Ash’s pouting was.

None of them were familiar with the mall they were in. It was on the other side of town and conveniently out of either one’s old turf. Ash spotted a familiar sign and immediately regretted not looking up the store list beforehand. A few seconds later, Shorter noticed the sign too. A grin stretched across the Chinese boy’s face.

“Oh hey,” he said. There was mischief in his tone.

“No,” Ash said. He grabbed Shorter’s elbow with his free hand and tried slowing down.

“C’mon, just a little window shopping,”

“No!” Ash said, louder this time. He pulled his boyfriend’s arm, but Shorter was impossible to stop. Eiji watched the struggle in confusion.

“Just give me five minutes! I promise I won’t buy anything,” Shorter said. They had almost reached the store.

“No! Dammit Shorter, you say that every time!” Ash tried with all his might to pull the taller boy back, but ended up being dragged into the store.

Footlocker.

“Oh, it’s good to be home!” Shorter said and practically frolicked to the wall of shoes. Ash gagged.

“Why is he so excited?” Eiji said. Ash took another bite out of his pretzel.

“Shorter is what they call a ‘sneakerhead’,” Ash said in disgust.

“What is that?”

“It means he’s obsessed with sneakers—Shorter!” Ash stomped over to his boyfriend, who was busy ogling a pair of black shoes. “Don’t you already have those?”

Shorter smiled. “I do, but not in this color.”

Ash rolled his eyes. “You already have Jordans,” he said.

“I do, but these are the Jordan Max Auras. They’re different,” Shorter said and held up the shoe for Ash to see. Ash went to take another bite out of his pretzel, but realized that there was none left. He looked over his shoulder to find Eiji.

“Oh, do me a favor will ya?” Shorter said, following Ash’s line of sight.

“What?”

“Try to find out which shoes Eiji likes. He needs a better pair of sneakers. The ones he has are ugly,” Shorter said.

“You’re terrible,” Ash said.

“I know,” Shorter said. “Seriously though, I wanna buy him something nice. Try to get some information out of him.”

Ash couldn’t help but smile. He knew his boyfriend meant well, even if he didn’t have the most agreeable shopping tendencies.

He said, “I will,” and, in a rare public display of affection, placed his hands on Shorter’s hips and kissed him on the cheek. He took pride in the way Shorter’s cheeks flushed afterward.

Eiji happened to be browsing a wall of shoes sold by a rival brand. Ash sat down on one of the cushions and observed him for a few minutes. He also may have taken a few pictures of his boyfriend while he wasn’t paying attention. The look of wonder on his face was too adorable to pass up.

“Find anything you like?” Ash said after Eiji fixated on a pair. Eiji picked the shoe up with both hands, examining it.

“These are nice,” he said. Ash could agree, it was a nice shoe. It was dark gray with a white sole; nowhere near as ridiculous as some of Shorter’s preferred footwear.

“You wanna try them on? I can flag somebody down,” Ash offered. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn’t been bothered by one of the many employees prowling around the store.

“Oh, no no!” Eiji said and dropped the shoe back onto the shelf as if it had bit him. “I am just looking.”

“Sure you are,” Ash said. Eiji stuck his tongue out at him. As soon as he moved to another shelf, Ash took out his phone and snapped a picture of the discarded shoe.

**Ash: Eiji likes these**

Ash texted Shorter and sent the picture. Not even ten seconds later, Shorter responded with an ‘ok hand’ emoji. Ash looked up and saw Shorter giving him a thumbs up. He rolled his eyes.

A few minutes passed and Eiji didn’t find any more sneakers that caught his eye. He found he cushion Ash was sitting at and plopped down beside him. He inquired to Shorter’s whereabouts. Ash looked around him and found Shorter sitting on another one of the cushions, opening a box.

“God dammit,” Ash said, “he’s trying on the shoes.” He looked again and saw one of the female employees sitting down next to Shorter. Shorter said something that made her laugh, and she put her hand on his shoulder. On any other day, Ash wouldn’t have thought anything of it—he had been in a polyamorous relationship with Shorter for a year after all, even before Eiji came along—but that day he was feeling petty. He smirked and strode over to his boyfriend.

In a sickeningly sweet tone, he said, “Hey babe.” Shorter paused in tying the shoelaces and looked up.

Ash continued. “You find something you like? Other than me, that is.” He noticed the look of confusion on the employee’s face and smiled.

“I think I could say so,” Shorter said. He finished tying the lace and sat up.

“Well, if you’re gonna be here a while, Eiji and I are gonna go get some ice cream.” With that, Ash bent over, tilted Shorter’s head up, and placed a solid kiss on his lips. They broke apart, but Shorter was still leaned in like he wanted more. Ash took and index finger and pushed Shorter’s sunglasses higher up his nose.

“Later cutie,” he said and gave a small wave. The look of disbelief on the employee’s face was absolutely priceless.

It hadn’t been easy convincing Eiji to buy him ice cream, especially since he had already had a sugar-loaded pretzel less than an hour before. But a sweet gaze and a few magic words while they were already walking towards the Baskin Robbins seemed to wear Eiji down. When they returned to Footlocker, Ash enjoying a scoop of rainbow sherbet in a cup, Shorter was walking out with two bags. _Two_.

Ash frowned.

“Shorter,” Ash said, “what did you do?”

Shorter raised his hands—and bags—in defense. “I can explain,” he said.

“Please do,” Ash said.

“One of these pairs is for you,” Shorter said and handed Ash the bag in his right hand.

“How dare you?” Ash said. He took the bag and hung it in the crook of his elbow.

“Love you too,” Shorter said.

They prowled a few more stores and managed to buy a few more things. Whatever Ash found, he made Shorter buy. “I refuse to spend my money on fast fashion,” Ash had said. It was a well-known fact amongst Shorter and Eiji that Ash’s entire wardrobe consisted of thrift store finds and clothes Shorter bought for Ash.

“One day you’re gonna come home with one of those trash bags full of clothes and there’s gonna be maggots in it,” Shorter teased. Ash hit him in the back of the knee with his shoe bag. They stopped joking, however, when Eiji gasped. Ahead of them, Eiji had stopped and was staring at the store ahead of them with wide eyes.

He practically yelled “Uniqlo!” and ran to it.

“Woah, hey! Wait up,” Ash said. “Do you know this place?”

Eiji turned to Ash and gave him a bright grin. “Yes, it is very popular store in Japan. I love it!”

“Well ain’t that somethin’,” Shorter said. Ash look around himself, and then back at Eiji, or what had been Eiji. The spot the Japanese boy had occupied was vacant.

“Shit, did we already lose track of him?” Ash said.

When they found him, Eiji was already toting a sizable wad of clothing around in both arms. Ash only watched Eiji struggle to pick up a pair of jeans he dropped for a minute before he helped him.

At checkout, Eiji offered to pay for everyone’s finds. The total came out to be well over $300. Ash fished out his debit card and handed it to the cashier. Eiji protested and handed his card to the cashier as well.

“Just use mine,” Ash said.

“No, use mine. Do not listen to him,” Eiji said. The cashier looked at Shorter with wide eyes. Shorter shrugged. He ended up taking Eiji’s card. Eiji fixed Ash with a look of utter satisfaction.

They walked by a candy store and Ash stopped.

“Ooh,” Ash said.

“I just bought you ice cream, though,” Eiji said exasperatedly.

“But I want some candy,” Ash said. “Please?”

Eiji bought him a bag of candy. Ash chose the wonderful concoction of peanut m&ms and strawberry sour gummy belts. Luckily, the store had strawberry Pocky, Eiji’s favorite.

Their next stop happened to be a body piercing shop on the west side of the mall. It was there that Eiji learned of Ash’s navel piercing.

“You didn’t know I had my belly button pierced?” Ash said. “I got it done before I met you. Shorter and I did it together.”

It was no surprise Shorter had a navel piercing. He was covered in piercings, after all. He ended up purchasing some new bars for the industrial piercing on his right ear. Ash had to stop him from pulling off his shirt to show the cashier the tattoo running down his spine.

When Eiji looked at his phone and saw it was almost 5pm, he decided to call it a day. Ash had almost finished his candy as well, which meant he would be begging for another sugary treat and spoiling his dinner in the next few minutes.

“That was fun,” Ash said as they drove home. “We should do it again soon.”

Eiji agreed, but when Ash showed him the bracelet he stole, his opinion changed entirely.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't edit this at all, so any spelling or grammatical errors are all mine. Hope you liked!  
> Follow me on tumblr @flowers-and-memes


End file.
